The standard method of communication between an air traffic controller and a pilot of an aircraft is voice radio, using either VHF bands for line-of-sight communication or HF bands for long-distance communication. One of the major problems with voice radio communications used in this manner is that all pilots being handled by a particular controller are tuned to the same frequency. As the number of flights air traffic controllers must handle is steadily increasing, the number of pilots tuned to a particular station also increases. This increases the chances that one pilot will accidentally override another, thus requiring the transmission to be repeated. In addition, each exchange between a controller and pilot requires a certain amount of time to complete; eventually, as the number of flights being controlled reaches a saturation point, the controller will not be able to handle any further aircraft. Thus, a new strategy is needed to cope with increased demands on air traffic control, and data link based communications offers a possible strategy by increasing the effective capacity of the communications channel.
Controller-pilot data link communication (CPDLC) is a means of communication between controller and pilot, using data link for air traffic control (ATC) communication. The CPDLC application provides air-ground data communication for the ATC service. This includes a set of clearance/information/request message elements that correspond to voice phraseology employed by air traffic control procedures. The controller is provided with the capability to issue flight level assignments, crossing constraints, lateral deviations, route changes and clearances, speed assignments, radio frequency assignments, and various requests for information. The pilot is provided with the capability to respond to messages, to request clearances and information, to report information, and to declare/rescind an emergency. The pilot is, in addition, provided with the capability to request conditional clearances (downstream) and information from a downstream air traffic service unit (ATSU). A “free text” capability is also provided to exchange information not conforming to defined formats. An auxiliary capability is provided to allow a ground system to use data link to forward a CPDLC message to another ground system.
With CPDLC, there is increased communication between ATC and the pilot via text, and thus reduced communication over VHF or HF. As more applications are developed for CPDLC, the CPDLC operations can be performed from various applications or devices connected to the onboard avionics. For example, current CPDLC operations can be performed from the multifunction control display unit (MCDU), forward looking displays, and the guidance panel, among others as are known in the art. With existing avionics architectures and setups, the entire CPDLC operation has to be performed on one of the aforesaid avionics devices/applications. That is, the pilot does not have a choice to choose the best modality in constructing or acknowledging a CPDLC message. Each modality (knob turn/button press/cursor move and click/touch) have their own advantages and disadvantages. As such, current CPDLC-enabled avionics systems are not “integrated” in the sense that they are not able to cooperate with one another to allow the pilot to select the best system(s) to construct or respond to a CPDLC message.
Accordingly, it would be desirable to provide systems and methods that enable an aircraft pilot greater freedom of choice in constructing or responding to CPDLC messages using one or more CPDLC-enabled avionics systems most suitable for a given CPDLC context. Moreover, it would be desirable to provide systems and methods that reduce pilot workload and response time in constructing or responding to CPDLC messages. Furthermore, other desirable features and characteristics of the exemplary embodiments will become apparent from the subsequent detailed description and the appended claims, taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings and the foregoing technical field and background.